


The Lone Star Variation

by Ultra



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Home, Male-Female Friendship, Romance, Texas, Unexpected Visitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 21:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2363300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it's just all about location; what never quite happened with Sheldon and Penny in Pasadena might just become very real deep in the heart of Texas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at Livejournal, as a Saturnalia gift for fortuna_juvat. Based on the following prompts - the dance competition, Shenny in Texas, alpha!Sheldon, hands, t-shirts, shower, and perfume.

Penny couldn’t breathe as she stood on the sidelines waiting for the event to start. Sheldon Cooper was the very last person who should be expected to take part in a dance competition, but here he was, contestant number five of five, waiting for his turn, and his dance teacher was pretty sure she was even more nervous than he was.

Penny wasn’t quite sure how she had got into this situation, she must’ve been really bored and kind of drunk when she agreed to such an insane suggestion. Maybe it was because Amy was so pathetic in her looks when she begged for a favour, maybe it was just because the idea of being better than Sheldon Cooper in any way was just too enticing. Whatever the reason, she had ended up with Sheldon’s hands awkwardly at her waist as she tried to teach him the moves of the rhumba.

It had to be the most impossible task since she tried to convince that cop she wasn’t drunk driving after ten tequila slammers and a half bottle of Schapps, but it was too late to turn back now. As Sheldon had pointed out several times, he wasn’t any happier to be here than she was, but that didn’t help Penny.

“Do you really think I have any wish to learn how to shake a so-called booty that I don’t have to music I can’t stand?” he had asked her crossly. “No. I am doing this purely because my ‘superiors’ believe that ‘Dancing with the Scientists’ is a wonderful idea for a charity event, and have said they will cut off my funding if I do not take part.”

Penny had asked why he got chosen and not any of the other guys. Apparently Sheldon was supposed to be flattered to be selected, though he had no idea why. Leonard found the whole thing very amusing, whilst Raj and Howard were both jealous in their own ways, sure they would make a much better dance partner for any beautiful woman that might partner them. Still, Wolowitz was pleased enough not to be giving Bernadette any excuse to leave him by getting up close and personal with another woman.

“See you can do this,” Penny had said with a smile as Sheldon began to move his feet as instructed.

“I can count, Penny, it’s hardly a new skill,” he sighed tiredly. “Moving my feet to the rhythm of music is not something I count as an achievement.”

“Well, I think you’re doing extremely well, Sheldon,” said Amy with a grin.

She was sat on the side-lines, looking far too much like the girl at the prom that nobody wanted to dance with. It might’ve been less sad if the room were smaller, but the girl had really gone the whole hog in her attempts to assist Sheldon. She had hired a proper dance studio at the local gym, and even offered to pay Penny for her assistance. It had taken a lot for the blonde not to accept such an offer of money when she so desperately needed to pay off her credit card bill full of shoes, but she just couldn’t do it to her friends. She had to help them out of the goodness of her heart, however painful it was in some ways.

“Amy, please,” Sheldon rolled his eyes, still jerking back and forth in step with Penny as she moved much more fluidly. “I appreciate your comments when they are helpful or constructive in their criticism, but telling me falsehoods in order to make me feel better about one of the few things I don’t excel at is hardly useful at the present time.”

“She’s just trying to be nice, Sheldon,” Penny told him snippily. “Y’know this would go a whole lot smoother if you just admitted you had hips!”

“Penny!” he retorted, stepping away from her, dancing quite forgotten. “Now, we are all well aware that every properly constructed human being has acetabulofemoral joints, and mine can move just as well as anyone else’s for walking, sitting, and all manner of useful things. I don’t consider wiggling them to be vital!”

If he weren’t being so tiresome, he might have been amusing. As it was, Amy was just getting mad at her boyfriend for not even trying. Penny herself was in fact trying not to laugh. Sheldon was so cute sometimes, when he got all irate about stuff that didn’t matter. The fact is she really believed he was trying here, he just felt so stupid, she supposed. Give the guy an equation to solve or an atom to split and he was just fine. Ask him to dance and, well, actually she knew for a fact he was still fine if it was something upright and fancy like a waltz. This was Latin, this had style and... well, sex, for lack of a better term. Sex and Sheldon went together like oil and water... or was is water and vinegar? It really wasn’t important.

“Okay, let’s start over,” said Penny waving her hands for Sheldon to stop whatever else he was doing and pay attention. “Forget the steps for a second...”

“Excuse me? Forget the steps?” her student echoed with astonishment. “How is throwing out the very basis of the dance going to help?”

“Because you already know that part, Sheldon,” she reminded him, going over to the bench and pulling Amy to her feet. “What we need to get you doing is moving with some actual sex appeal,” she sighed as she dragged Miss Farrah-Fowler out into the middle of the room. “You can do this, right, Amy?”

“I... I think so,” she agreed, though it was clear she wasn’t so sure.

Penny wasn’t so sure about it either and yet when she took the lead and got Amy swaying, the girl could really shake it! Sheldon seemed entirely unmoved as the two young women gyrated around each other. Another little piece of evidence that he just wasn’t like other guys. Honestly, neither of the girls really noticed, Penny because she was astounded by how well Amy could move when she tried, and Amy herself because she was feeling altogether overcome.

“I... I have to go to the bathroom,” she said all of a sudden, bolting from the room.

She spun Penny away as she ran, twirling the blonde straight into Sheldon’s arms that were not quite ready for her. She laughed for no real reason, but was serious again in a second when he adjusted his grip on her and really tried his best with the moves he just wasn’t getting before.

Penny didn’t say anything, she was far too amazed. Sheldon’s eyes were locked on her own and his hands seemed to be burning her through her clothes as they moved fluidly like one person. Maybe it had taken seeing other people do it that had shown Sheldon how he needed to move for the dance. Whatever had inspired the sudden change, Penny was genuinely impressed. She would have told him so if she remembered to breathe, but in this particular moment, that was not so much happening. It was only when the music came to an end that the spell broke.

“Was that better?” asked Sheldon too softly - even he didn’t know why.

“Better, yeah,” Penny replied, swallowing hard, overly aware of hands at her hips and lips close enough to kiss, and... where the hell did that come from?!

In a second she was out of Sheldon’s arms, adjusting her clothes and breathing too hard. That was just the craziest moment ever. Getting her bearings, Penny pushed her hair back off her face and turned around to face Sheldon again. At least that was what she intended, but he was already gone.

That was three days ago and Penny really hadn’t seen either of the Shamy couple since, not until today when Sheldon made his debut. Even so, Amy didn’t seem to be here for her boyfriend’s big event. Penny might’ve worried about that if she wasn’t already on panic overload over Sheldon himself. She absently joined in the applause as the fourth couple finished their dance and walked off the floor, making way for the announcer to bring on Dr Sheldon Lee Cooper and his partner, some beauty with an unpronouncable Russian name - somehow Penny immediately hated her.

The music began, and the couple seemed to start well enough. Penny was counting in her head, encouraging Sheldon with the force of her mind to just concentrate, feel the music, anything so that he didn’t make a fool of himself, but her wishes were in vain. It took all of a minute before Sheldon had trodden on the girls toes, spun her out so fast that he lost his grip on her, and tripped over his own feet when he tried to right himself.

People were laughing, and Penny was most disgusted in Leonard, Raj, and Howard for taking so much pleasure in Sheldon’s distress. His partner could barely get up off the floor, the suggestion being her ankle was injured somehow. There was a distinct look of deer in headlights on Sheldon’s face as he glanced around at the audience all pointing and laughing. Penny had no doubt he was having flashbacks to his painful childhood and wasn’t at all surprised when he bolted from the room at top speed.

Rushing through the crowd as best she could, Penny just didn’t know the building as well as her scientist friends. She thought she could pick out Sheldon’s office amongst all the labs and other rooms, but failed miserably. She pulled out her cell and tried to call him but his own phone was obviously switched off. She would just have to drive home and hope he had headed there himself, Penny decided.

Rushing for the exit, she barrelled out of the front doors, almost sending Amy Farrah-Fowler flying. Wide eyed and out of breath, Penny gasped.

“Amy, what happened to you? Why weren’t you here for Sheldon?” she asked, perhaps a little more angrily than was necessary. “You’re his girlfriend, he needed you!”

“And I wanted to be here,” the other woman explained, pushing her glasses further up her nose. “I intended to be, but I knew you would also be in attendance, and that would make matters awkward at best.”

“Awkward? Awkward how?” asked Penny, looking towards her car and knowing she really needed to go after Sheldon already.

“Because, I am afraid I might have to terminate my boyfriend-girlfriend agreement with Sheldon, in light of new feelings that have been developing within my loins,” she explained, the way only Amy could. “It would seem to me that if I can be more sexually aroused by dancing the rhumba with a blonde beauty than by kissing my boyfriend, the world is not as it should be.”

“Oh well, I... what with the huh now?” Penny asked suddenly, feeling entirely overwhelmed when she realised what Amy had just told her.

Today was getting crazier by the second!


	2. Chapter 2

Sheldon had been gone for twenty four hours, and Penny was worried. She really expected to find him on her way home or at the very least when she got back to the apartment block. He wasn’t in his own place or at her door. She had rallied the troops in the form of Leonard, Howard, and Raj, and together they checked all the places their friend might have gone too. He was in none of the usual restaurants, not at the comic book store or the library, nowhere that he might seek solace.

In the end, Leonard had suggested they just leave messages in all available places and then head to bed. Doubtless Sheldon would show up by morning, when he was done sulking. Penny barely resisted the urge to blame her ex and his friends for all of this. It wasn’t entirely their fault, but they certainly hadn’t helped matters by laughing at Sheldon and upsetting him even more than he had been.

Lying in bed in the small hours of the morning, Penny went back over the events of the last few days and physically winced at the memories that surfaced. Teaching Sheldon to dance had been crazy but almost fun for a while. She actually thought he might be able to do this thing if he just tried, but he was hardly willing for the most part. He certainly proved last night his inability to perform when nervous, no matter what the activity. In retrospect, Penny thought she might have been better off lowering his inhibitions a little with alcohol, but then perhaps he would have been more embarrassed, after all, his pants had a tendency to come off when he was anywhere close to drunk.

“Sheldon, where are you?” she muttered to herself in the dark.

They had tried everywhere. The boys even went over to Amy’s place, unable to understand why Penny refused. That was a whole other thing she wasn’t prepared to deal with right now, the fact that the nerdy girl might actually find her more attractive than any guy in her life. She wasn’t the first girl to have a crush on Penny, and the blonde was fine with that, or she would be if said girl wasn’t meant to be dating her male friend!

A thought hit Penny out of the blue, somewhere amongst all memories of times spent with Sheldon, both happy and sad. She had been trying to figure out where he had gone, find some little clue, when suddenly it hit her right between the eyes. She was out of bed in a flash and hurrying to her dresser. She knew she still had the piece of paper in there somewhere, purely for emergency use, but then this really was a kind of emergency.

“Gotcha!” she grinned as she pulled the note out of the drawer and rushed to grab the phone, dialling at speed.

The wait seemed forever, until suddenly a sleepy Texan voice asked not-quite-so-politely ‘Who in the tarnation is this at five o’clock in the morning?’

“Mrs Cooper? It’s Penny,” she explained, “I’m so sorry to disturb you, I just...”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so glad it’s you!” Mary exclaimed then, the smile on her face practically visible down the phone line. “Y’know when Shelly showed up on my door-step in the middle of the night, I just knew he wasn’t really here for a nice little visit to his Momma,” she sighed. “Somethin’ has gone wrong again, hasn’t it?”

“Kind of, yeah,” Penny admitted. “Look, Mrs Cooper, could you please tell Sheldon to come home? Running away isn’t the answer...”

“I could tell him, sweetheart, but I just don’t think it’d do any darn good,” the older woman sighed. “He’s talking about staying, maybe permanently, though I doubt he’s brought enough luggage for more’n a day...”

“Okay,” Penny nodded, already holding the phone under her chin whilst she started to throw on some clothes. “That’s okay, Mrs C, we’ll figure this out...” she assured her.

It was all of ten minutes later that Penny had hung up the phone and was letting herself into Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment. Spare keys had all kind of uses she had found, though she never figured on needing them to break into Sheldon’s bedroom and pack a bag on his behalf. She could’ve woken Leonard, she was sure he wouldn’t mind, but he was never going to understand Penny’s plan to fly off to Texas on a whim. Honestly, she didn’t entirely understand it herself, only that she felt this ridiculous need to go help Sheldon get over himself and bring him home. She would like to think it was the kind of thing he would do for her, even if she couldn’t completely believe it were true.

Going through the closet in Sheldon’s room, Penny pulled out the T-shirts she thought he might need. The Flash, The Green Lantern, all the ones he wore most often. She threw in other essentials, like underwear and socks, then crept out towards the bathroom. She leapt a foot in the air when the toilet flushed and Leonard came out of the door before she could go in. The fact that Leonard shrieked louder than she did was less than comforting, given that they dated all that time.

“Penny, what are you doing here?” he asked her right out, as soon as he could breathe again - as it was, Leonard wished he had his asthma inhaler to hand!

“Packing a bag,” she told him truthfully, though she knew it made no sense without further explanation. “For Sheldon,” she sighed like it was a huge inconvenience to have to tell him. “He’s gone back to Texas and I’m going after him, Leonard,” she admitted then.

“Really?” he asked with a frown. “Why? I mean, give him time to cool off, he’ll get tired of his Mom’s talking about Jesus all the time, and he’ll come home,” he shrugged like it was no big deal.

Penny hated that.

“He was upset, Leonard,” she told him crossly. “So badly that he crossed three states to get away from the people who laughed at him,” she said pointedly. “Mrs Cooper said she thinks he needs a friend more than his mother right now, so I’m going,” she said definitely, pushing past her ex and into the bathroom.

Leonard was so stunned, he hadn’t moved when she emerged again a few moments later with Sheldon’s specially wrapped toothbrush, razor, and shampoo. He knew there was no arguing with Penny at the best of times, and he also knew how she had this unending need to take care of Sheldon lately. He never would understand why that was, apart from what might be considered the obvious reason between any other unrelated male and female. Where his room-mate and his ex were concerned, Leonard had no worries about them becoming closer. This was Sheldon and Penny after all, and that would be crazy.

Six hours later...

“Penny, come on in darlin’,” Sheldon’s Mom greeted the blonde with a smile and a hug.

“Hey, Mrs Cooper,” she replied, dumping her bags down as she came into the house. “I came straight over here to drop off Sheldon’s things, but I really have to go find a hotel or something.”

“Oh, nonsense, child. You’ll stay right here,” the older woman told her definitely. “And no more of this Mrs Cooper business, you’ll call me Mary,” she insisted, before turning her head towards the hallway. “Shelly!” she yelled. “Get your skinny butt out here!” she told him, an order rather than a request.

“But, Mom! I was...” Sheldon was about to whine like a child when suddenly he appeared and spotted Penny stood with his mother. “What are you doing here?” he asked the blonde.

“Nice to see you too, Shelly,” she said, giving him a look. “I did you a favour and brought all the stuff you left behind,” she gestured to the bag on the floor, which Mary then picked up and handed to her son.

“Now you say thank you to Penny for being such a good friend,” she told him in her own no-nonsense way. “Then you take that bag to your room and come back to help Penny with her things. She’s gonna be staying with us for a while.”

“Why?” he asked then. “If you intend to take me back to Pasadena, Penny, your plan is futile. I’m never returning,” he told her snippily, before the glare from his mother had her obeying his instructions in a second.

Penny almost laughed at his childish ways. Sheldon thought himself so superior most of the time, and in some ways he had every right to. With his mother, however, he was exactly like a tiny child, and it amused Penny to no end.

Staying here was going to be strange to say the least and yet Penny kind of liked the idea of it. She wanted to talk to Sheldon alone at some point about what had happened at the dance competition. She was going to have to get him to see sense and come home eventually, for his sake as well as everyone elses. In the meantime, she was at least going to enjoy the Southern hospitality of Sheldon’s mother, and a little relaxation away from work and Amy and the guys. Maybe this trip away from Pasadena was as much what she needed as it was what Sheldon needed. It seemed they were about to find out!


	3. Chapter 3

Penny felt strange about sitting at the table in Sheldon’s childhood home eating lunch. It was a place she had never been before, though she had often wondered what it would be like. It all looked pretty normal as she glanced around, exactly as a well-kept Christian home might be expected to be. The only thing out of place was Sheldon, in his garish ‘Green Lantern’ T-Shirt, eye-balling her as if she were something in a petri dish. Penny hated that.

“Shelly!” Mary snapped just then. “Stop staring at our guest and eat your dinner,” she told him in the way only a mother could.

“Mom!” he complained like a five year old. “Don’t you think Penny should give some reasonable explanation for why she’s here? In our home? And why she has been in my room... again!”

“She already told you, she was here to bring you your things and to talk some sense into you,” his mother reminded him, causing Penny to open her mouth and close it again fast, her own response not needed.

Awkward really was the word of the moment as she looked between mother and son, then returned her attention to her food. It was genuinely delicious, a proper home cooked meal, the kind of which Penny really never got. It was all take-outs, left-overs, and whatever she could manage to make herself at home. Her cooking skills were limited, as was her budget. As it was she had no clue how she even fit the price of a plane ticket to Texas on her credit card, but that was something to worry about later. The priority right now had to be Sheldon and how upset he had been, though Penny was fast losing any sympathy she felt for him. His attitude reminded her why sometimes nobody liked him at all!

Mary excused herself then as the phone rang.

“I didn’t ask you to come here,” he muttered, presumably not willing to give his Mom another chance to snap at him. “I appreciate that you did, I suppose, but I never asked.”

“I know you didn’t ask, Sheldon,” Penny sighed, “but I was worried about you when you just ran out like you did,” she explained. “I thought we were friends...”

“As you well know, Penny, you have indeed been elevated to that elite list of people which I consider friends,” Sheldon turned on his seat a little to face her and explained himself the way only he could. “However, I fail to see how our being friends requires you to go into my room, touch my things, and then chase me across three states to my mother’s house and demand my return.”

“Who’s demanding?” asked Penny with her hands raised in mock surrender. “I just want to know you’re okay and figure out what made you freak out so badly.”

Sheldon didn’t get a chance to answer as his mother came back into the room and clapped her hands together.

“Well, I’ll go get that dessert, then maybe later you can take Penny out and show her this little town of ours, Shelly,” she said with a smile as she cleared the plates away.

Penny got up to help but was swiftly ushered back into her seat. Mary thanked her for her kindness but assured her as a guest she should stay put.

“Mom, do I have to...?” Sheldon began to argue, but his mother was having none of it.

“Now I am having my church group over this evening, and they do not wanna hear all your evolutionary whatever it is hokum,” she said definitely as she took the dirty dishes through to the kitchen.

Penny bit her lip so as not to laugh at Sheldon when he obediently agreed to his mothers wishes. She knew how the two disagreed over religion, in that Mary was devout and Sheldon saw it all as defying scientific logic. It shouldn’t be funny, and the topic in itself wasn’t particularly. It was more so how Sheldon reverted to a child in his Momma’s presence.

“C’mon, Shelly,” she teased him, leaning in and bumping his arm with her own. “Don’t you wanna show a girl a good time?” she asked in her best Southern drawl, which wasn’t that great considering she was supposed to be an actress.

“Not particularly,” he answered sullenly. “What I wanted was to watch a marathon of Battlestar Galactica with commentary in my room, but clearly that was a pipe dream,” he huffed.

He may act like a child when he was at home, but Penny couldn’t help but think he was the cutest kid ever when he pouted like that. Maybe she shouldn’t have worried so much about his coming back here, but doubtless his feelings were still hurt. She wanted to ask him about it, but in front of his mother was no good, and even alone he was unlikely to want to discuss it. She would try later anyway, there was nothing else she could do.

* * *

“Why are you wearing that?” asked Sheldon as he stepped out onto the front porch and found Penny on the steps, a cowboy hat on her head.

“I could ask you the same thing, cowboy,” she smiled in an odd way as she turned to look at him and then scrambled to her feet, wiping the backside of her jeans as she did so. “Where’d the Green Lantern go?” she asked, staring at his new ensemble of plaid shirt and jeans and even boots, the kind of which she had no idea he owned!

“These are clothes that are acceptable to the population of Texas at large,” he explained, gesturing to his own apparel. “If I go out in any of my T-shirts bearing reference to comic books or other popular culture, I receive such a barrage of questions, the answers to which often prove a complete waste of my own precious time,” he shrugged “Conforming sometimes makes life easier.”

Penny might’ve laughed at that or even just shrugged it off, but actually it made her heart hurt to hear him talk that way. Sheldon wasn’t understood here. He wasn’t just a misfit in his deeply Southern, deeply religious, unintelligent family, he was a complete out-cast in society, in his entire state. Poor Shelly didn’t fit the mould, though dressed as he was now, his hair blown back off his face by the breeze, he almost looked as if maybe he could.

“You’re staring at me,” he told Penny then, though she hadn’t noticed it herself. “Do you have a reason?”

“Yes,” she nodded slowly. “Let’s go,” she added then, never giving him said reason, not only because he didn’t ask but because she wouldn’t know where to begin in explaining anyway.

“The cowboy hat, or more specifically cowgirl styled hat, won’t help you fit in, you know,” he told her as they set off walking. “Tourists always think that, but they’re very wrong. Such head wear is unnecessary and insensible in town.”

“I’ve been called worse,” Penny shrugged, hooking her arm through Sheldon’s without even thinking about it as they strolled along.

When he didn’t make a big deal or flinch away, she left it there, and her smile grew.

* * *

Sheldon gave Penny a guided tour of his home town, in a way that only Sheldon Cooper could. There was no shopping permitted, no rest-breaks for food or the bathroom unless he specified it. He dragged her from the Opera House to the Courthouse, via the K-Mart he was born in, pointing out architectural significance and spewing forth facts that meant little or nothing to a girl like Penny. She wasn’t interested, and she didn’t care, but she let Sheldon go on about it. It made him happy, and feel comfortable. That was all she was after. Get the guy in a comfortable sort of a mood and he just might be willing to explain to her why he ran so easily from the dancing event at CalTech.

“So, you ready to tell me what really happened yet?” she asked as casually as she could.

“What happened where exactly?” Sheldon wanted to know, though the fact he wouldn’t look at her suggested to Penny that he already knew.

“At the dance competition?” she prompted anyway. “I mean, you were really getting it in our lesson, then you ran. I pretty much don’t see you until the night of the event, and then you run from that too, and not just home, but all the way to Texas.”

“Technically speaking, Penny, Texas is my home, given the fact I was born and raised here, and my mother still resides in the same house in which I am always welcome,” he told her succinctly.

That didn’t take away from the fact her question was still valid and he knew it as well as she did. The look on her face suggested she wasn’t going to give in until he answered her question directly. With a huge sigh that proved he thought it was an awfully big deal, he relented.

“I understand that embarrassment is a usual state of being for any normal person that makes a fool of themselves on a regular basis,” he told Penny. “However, for a Homo Novus such as myself, things are different. I am expected to be superior in my knowledge and skills, and yet I proved to be completely incapable of dancing the rhumba without causing injury and apparent hilarity,” he explained. “I swore as a child that when I left Texas I would never again be the centre of attention for anything but brilliance. If I have returned to my previous state of being, why not return to the place where it all began? At least I expect to be mocked here.”

Penny felt her heart breaking as she heard those words. She had a feeling this was the problem. Being pointed at, laughed at, made to feel a useless fool by those closest to him, that was what had hurt. It had brought the past hurtling back to Sheldon to the point where he literally felt the need to cry ‘Mommy’ and run home. She hated that anyone made him feel that way, even if he was capable of doing much the same to every so-called lower being in his company. Sheldon was never malicious in the things he said, just careless. His own friends, the people Penny thought were her friends too, they had been downright mean and seemingly not even cared.

“C’mon,” she said, pulling on his arm to stop him from walking.

“A bar? You want to take me into a bar?” he asked in apparent amusement.

“Yes, Sheldon, I want to go into a bar,” she rolled her eyes, never understanding why he made such a big deal out of simple things. “I need a drink after all that, and y’know if we go home your Mom and her church buddies are still gonna be there,” she told him with a hint of a smile that she couldn’t help.

“One drink,” he told her definitely.

* * *

Penny wasn’t sure how she had managed to convince Sheldon to drink beer, much less straight out of the bottle. Maybe it was because he still believed in the social convention of drinking alcohol to feel better about one’s sad state of being. In moments of mild depression, one beer might ease his pain. Whether he was talking about his embarrassment in Pasadena or his mother’s church-related talk, Penny wasn’t sure, but three beers in, Sheldon was getting altogether loose.

“You know, Shiner Bock is Spoetzl’s flagship beer,” he told her, waving his latest half-empty bottle around. “Bock has been brewed since 1913, almost as long as the Spoetzl Brewery has been in business. However, it wasn’t until a few decades ago that Shiner began producing Bock all year round,” he explained. “You see originally, Bock was considered a Lent beer, and therefore was only made around that season.”

“That’s very interesting,” Penny lied, unable to keep from laughing even then, as she looked from her friend to many a person dancing all around the floor of the bar.

She hadn’t deliberately wandered into a real old-fashioned country establishment, though she and her cowboy hat did seem to it in awfully well. The dancing was as old-time as the decor and yet the people were mostly her own age. They just knew how to do this stuff, and she hadn’t a clue.

“Sweetie, if it makes you feel any better, I never could’ve taught you this dance,” she told Sheldon, her hand on his arm. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“Curious,” he said with a frown. “This is one dance I can do,” he admitted.

“Really?” she checked with a glint in her eye that might’ve been unmistakable to anyone else, but this was Sheldon. “Show me?” she requested, sure he would say no on so many levels, but also knowing that a little booze went a long way with Shelly Cooper.

“Alright,” he said almost immediately, proving without question he was drunk, as he downed the rest of his bottle of beer, grabbed Penny’s hand and all but swung her out onto the dance floor.

He had her in his arms just as she should be within a second, and though she tripped over her feet twice in the beginning, he soon had her dancing the two-step without too much trouble. Penny spun like a top when he threw her out under his arm, and did her best to follow his feet with her own as he walked her around the floor. Somewhere along the line, she put her hat onto his head, mostly to better see her own feet, and to have him look a little more like the other guys dancing their ladies round the floor. Sheldon was actually smiling, not even needing to count the steps apparently as they danced. Penny was having such a great time. She wondered vaguely why Sheldon couldn’t always be this free and easy, because she kind of loved it.

As the song ended, Penny spun back into her partner with a little more force than was needed. She collided with Sheldon’s chest and was mildly surprised when they both didn’t fall over. Breathing a little more quickly than usual after the extertion of the dance, her eyes went up to meet Sheldon’s own and didn’t move. It was one of those moments like they had in the gym that day she tried to teach him to rhumba. He had bolted then, but didn’t seem ready to do so now. If he were anyone else, Penny would’ve assumed he was going to kiss her, or she would’ve kissed him, but this was Sheldon and that would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it? Well, maybe, but a little voice in her head told her this wasn’t exactly the first time she had thought about it recently. 

“Penny,” he said too softly and they both noticed. “Um... did you know that today seventy-three percent of the beer made at the Spoetzl Brewery is Bock.”

She might’ve been disappointed at his breaking the moment that way, but she just couldn’t manage it. She was a little tipsy herself and all he actually achieved was to make her burst out laughing.

“Dance with me some more,” she urged him, only realising then as she moved a little his hands were still gripping her at the waist - it wasn’t a bad feeling.

Sheldon never got the chance to answer, be it positive or negative, when his cell phone rang. He fumbled to get away from Penny a step and root in his pocket. As soon as he looked at the screen, his expression changed, though she couldn’t really read it. Penny only knew her own disappointment as he moved away to take his call.

“Hello, Amy...”


	4. Chapter 4

Penny felt incredibly sober despite how much beer she had drunk on a semi-full stomach. She wondered if it were more the activities of the evening and the company that had made her feel so giddy before. Semi-drunk Sheldon was a lot of fun. Actually, sober Sheldon could be fun when he wanted to be, she just found that most of the time he’d rather be serious and scientific. Now he was going to be as serious as ever, she was sure, after what had happened here.

Dancing and drinking and having a good time, Penny could almost have fooled herself that she was on a date. Sheldon knew how to treat a lady when he wanted to, paying for her drinks, waiting for her to sit before he did. When they danced, she was without question feeling like a woman in his arms, however crazy that sounded. Now she was reminded of the main reason amongst many why she should not be letting herself get closer to her neighbour and friend. Amy.

It was a strange situation. Though Sheldon and Amy were technically boyfriend-girlfriend, they were not in a conventional relationship at all. Their dates were pre-arranged and carefully scheduled. She was permitted a minor amount of hand holding and little to no other physical contact. Penny often wondered about that, since she spent plenty of time with Sheldon on an impromptu basis, and often touched him, even hugged him, without much in the way of complaint. He had even hugged her on no less than three occasions, and seemed much more willing to dance with her, even sober, than he had been with his girlfriend or his dance partner in the competition.

“Another beer please?” she asked of the bartender, waving her empty bottle towards him.

She’d been sat up on this stool for ten minutes or more now, waiting for Sheldon to return. His phone call with Amy was certainly going on longer than she expected and Penny wondered what they might be talking about. Amy hadn’t shown up to the Dancing with the Scientists event, and later told Penny it was due to a shift in her feelings. There was no way to know how Sheldon might take that particular truth. He liked Amy well enough that he was jealous when she went on one fairly innocent date with Stuart from the comic book store, and yet he rarely showed any more affection for his girlfriend than for anyone else. Maybe she was being ridiculous, but Penny sometimes felt that she meant more to Sheldon than Amy ever did. Maybe she just hoped it, but she dare not think along those lines too much for fear of the path they might lead her down.

“Well, that was enlightening,” said Sheldon as he appeared next to Penny then, dropping the cowboy hat she had parked on his head before onto the bar.

“Are you okay? Is Amy okay?” she asked, not really sure which question should be given the higher priority right now.

“Though I didn’t ask after Amy’s health during our conversation, she seemed perfectly fine, as am I. There is no cause for concern,” he explained, sitting down on the bar stool beside her. “Amy simply wished to discuss the termination of our relationship agreement,” he explained with a shrug.

He didn’t look upset, but then with Sheldon, Penny often found it was hard to tell. He had been terribly hurt after the dance off that had made him run across the country, and yet his girlfriend just dumped him and he seemed as fine as he professed to be.

“Sheldon...” she began, unsure how to continue when he met her gaze. “Did Amy say why she wanted things to be over with you two?” she asked carefully.

“Her reasons were two-fold,” he replied with a nod, as he took the beer she offered and swigged at it without really thinking. “In the first place, she explained that she was hoping the physical intimacy between us would increase over time, despite the fact I assured her from the beginning such a thing had a likelihood of barely more than zero,” he explained, as Penny listened intently. “Secondly, she had apparently found that whilst my presence in her life brought her joy and inspired her to seek sexual gratification, I did not cause as much arousal in her as she could find from getting closer to you.”

Penny gulped down plenty of her beer, not sure how to respond to that. She knew this truth already, of course, since Amy had said it herself. It wasn’t as if the nerd girl actually came out and said she was having lesbian tendencies or went so far as to offer Penny any kind of relationship that way. Still, she had said she felt more turned on by her BFF than her boyfriend, and that was always going to make life awkward and complicated for everyone. Penny had no feelings of that nature for Amy or for any woman. She liked men, mostly big butch manly men, or she used to until she met Leonard and Sheldon.

“I’m sorry, Sheldon,” she said eventually, eyes focused on her own hands as they worked the label off the beer bottle she held on the bar top.

“Why should you be sorry?” he asked in earnest. “Did you deliberately cause Amy to have these feelings? Did you encourage her to break up with me?”

“No, of course not,” she said definitely shaking her head. “I only want you to be happy, both of you, and I am certainly not trying to take Amy from you, Sheldon. As much a fan as I am of the Ellen show and all that, I just don’t ride that bus.”

“Lesbians have a specified bus?” asked Sheldon in astonishment and Penny bit her lip then to keep from laughing at him.

“It’s a phrase, sweetie,” she told him, patting his hand, “A metaphor or whatever.”

“Oh,” he nodded once, clearly still a little fuzzy from the beer, Penny guessed, or maybe just that oblivious to things that weren’t based in scientific research or comic book lore.

There was no doubting that Sheldon Cooper was like no other guy Penny ever dated, not even like any other she ever met. Leonard was a nerd too, but still had some concept of pop culture and what Penny might call the real world. Sheldon lived in his own little bubble, where everything made sense to him. Anything outside of his understanding was alien and ridiculous, such Penny had been when they first met. Now she had been pulled into his world somehow and she kind of liked that.

“I’m still sorry about you and Amy,” she repeated honestly. “I did know she liked me but I never thought... I just don’t want things with you and me to be awkward and different now.”

“I don’t see why they should be,” Sheldon told her easily. “I’m sure Amy and I will remain friends. Her feelings for you can be no deeper than Leonard’s have been, and he and I remain on good terms for the most part.”

Penny knew that wasn’t the point but also that Sheldon was never going to get what she was saying no matter how she tried to explain. The atmosphere was different now, the music no longer inspired her to dance, and her partner for the activity, whilst clearly not heart-broken over his break up, was certainly less happy to be here now.

“It’s late,” said Penny, finishing off her beer and hopping down from her stool. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

When Sheldon and Penny got back to the Cooper house, all was quite. It seemed Mary had already gone off to bed, leaving a note on the table to inform them there were snacks in the fridge if they wanted them and she would see them in the morning. Both stated they weren’t hungry at all and just went their separate ways to bed.

Penny started to undress and realised she smelt like the bar. It wasn’t so bad, but she didn’t like the idea of climbing into a bed in a stranger’s home reeking of beer and cigarette smoke. A quick shower was all she needed, and she would be quiet so as not to disturb Sheldon’s Mom.

Grabbing her wash bag and towel, she peeked out of her bedroom, saw no-one was there, and darted to the bathroom in only her underwear. It probably should have occurred to her to lock the door, but she was in such a hurry and concentrating so hard on being quick and quiet, she didn’t bother.

* * *

Sheldon was still a little giddy from the alcohol he had consumed, but he did still remembered his rigorous hygiene regime. Before going to bed he must shower, he must brush his teeth and floss, and he must wash and dry his hair (thoroughly for fear of catching a chill if he did not). Headed to the bathroom in only his pants, his towel slung over his arm, it was a wonder he didn’t hear the water running before he burst in, but then thoughts of the evening’s events were as distracting as the merry feeling the booze had given him. The first he knew of his intrusion was a yelp from Penny and her familiar naked form being covered swiftly by a towel.

Even in his fuzzy state, Sheldon did remember that he was to turn his back when faced with a naked lady. Of course, the thought also occurred that he had seen all this before, that night when Penny had slipped in the tub and injured herself. The memories he had of that never failed to elicit strange stirrings within him, but a man of science dare not venture down a path of pure feelings and lustful desires...

“Sheldon!” Penny snapped at his back. “God, don’t you knock or anything?” she asked him.

“As a rule, the door is locked when the room is occupied,” he replied, without turning. “Ergo, what would be the use of knocking?”

Penny knew he was right and that she had been foolish not to lock the door as he said. In her own apartment, she never had to bother since she was always alone, and it had proved a useful habit the time when she had to call for help. It was Sheldon that had come running then, reminding her in glorious Technicolor memories of a situation like this before. Naked alone with Sheldon wasn’t new. In fact having her naked body touched by Sheldon wouldn’t exactly be a revelation, the thought of it however gave her feelings she felt guilty and strange about. It didn’t help that they had been so close the past couple of days, physically as much as figuratively. So close and alone together and mostly naked now...

“It’s gotta be the beer talking,” she muttered to herself, though Sheldon clearly heard her.

“What is?” he asked, in all innocence apparently, head turning towards her though his eyes remained tight shut.

“Nothing,” came Penny’s fast response. “I should go...” she tried to move past him then, but her damp bare feet skidded on the tiled floor.

Sheldon had faster reflexes than she would’ve thought. All those years playing video games perhaps, but that wasn’t exactly what Penny was thinking about now, if she were even thinking at all

Throwing her arms out to catch herself, she had latched onto Sheldon who pulled her up before she could fall down. She was now squeezed up close against his bare chest, her towel having shifted and revealing more than it should of her own chest. Their embrace was no worse than when they had been dancing, and yet in such a state of near-nakedness, or even complete nakedness on her part... If he were any other man, from her old meat-head boyfriends like Kurt or Zach, down to Leonard or Raj, she would know just exactly what happened next. Sheldon was always different, always a mystery, and yet on some level, Penny she still wanted the same result, however ridiculous it seemed.

Sheldon didn’t know what he was supposed to do here. He had no way to know the social etiquette for what to say or do when found in such a situation. Turning his back on Penny now meant dropping her on the floor. At best she would stay upright but become completely uncovered when her towel fell. Certainly, he should apologise for the way he was holding her and probably warn her he was letting go before doing so, but as it was he found it impossible. His body rarely reacted to women like this and yet things were happening, things she was bound to notice if he didn’t move.

“I, er...” he tried to speak and felt ridiculously lacking in the skill all of a sudden.

“Yeah,” Penny replied, trying to manoeuvre herself back under the towel and extract herself from Sheldon’s arms at the same time. “Thank you... I think,” she said awkwardly, grabbing up her things and rushing for the door. “Goodnight, Sheldon.”

“Goodnight, Penny,” he replied politely, though he didn’t move at all.

He couldn’t move, he couldn’t breathe, at least not evenly. No woman ever made him feel like this, not even Penny. Well, that wasn’t strictly true, but that one time he had called an anomaly and thrown the data aside. Perhaps it was twice now that he thought on it, or maybe it was three occasions. Sheldon turned to stare at the door through which Penny had passed, where only a faint scent of her shampoo still lingered, and frowned.

“Curiouser and curiouser.”


	5. Chapter 5

Penny was up early for one of the first times in her life. The fact was she just couldn’t sleep, not here, not after last night’s events. It ought to be the guys in her social circle that had the busy brains that wouldn’t quit. This wasn’t her. She had simple problems like making enough cash to pay for her shoe obsession. There were no moral quandaries to wade through, because she took such a simple approach to dating, for the most part. She ought to have learnt her lesson with Leonard about straying from her usual type, and now she was actually considering leaping into a whole other realm with none other than Sheldon Lee Cooper.

They had been in Texas together for no more than a day. That dance lesson she gave him was all of four days ago. How things had changed in such a small time, she thought, and yet the more Penny went over it in her head, the more she realised that wasn’t quite true.

It was strange to try and think back, cataloguing so many moments she and Sheldon had shared. The building of their friendship had been so gradual, she hadn’t really noticed it. As much as they could still antagonise each other on occasion, Penny really didn’t know what she would do without Dr Whack-a-doodle in her life.

She smiled at the thought, and sipped at the glass of orange juice she had brought out onto the porch with her. The fresh air and the sight of the sun coming up ought to have helped clear her head, but it really didn’t. Penny just found that in the open space she found it all the easier to think of too many things, too many variables, as Sheldon himself might say.

As Penny thought it over, she realised part of the reason she and Amy never got as close as the other girl might’ve wanted was because something always stopped Penny making a real connection. It could be jealousy, but the idea ought to be crazy. The trouble was, it really wasn’t. In a crisis, Penny called Sheldon to distract her with computer games or help her start a business. A moment of panic brought him to her for sound advice, and on her break up with Leonard he was more worried about maintaining a friendship with the girl across the hall than his own room-mate. Penny looked after Sheldon when he was sick. Sheldon fixed any electrical item Penny managed to break. They sang Soft Kitty to each other, and hadn’t thought it was weird in longer than she could recall.

“Oh my God,” she gasped, as realisation truly hit her.

“Nope, not quite,” said a guy she hadn’t even noticed was there. “But I can see why you might think so,” he grinned, flexing Adonis style muscles.

Penny was a little confused, especially since she hadn’t even noticed he was there by the porch, leaning on the rail and grinning at her, until he spoke.

“I’m sorry, what?” she asked him. “Did you want something?”

“Depends what’s on offer,” the man asked her with a definitely leer as his eyes travelled down her legs. “Name’s Mike, I live just down the street. Saw you sittin’ out here all alone and thought I oughta come on over, see if you was okay,” he explained, all muscles and Southern drawl.

He was exactly the type Penny would go for in years gone by. Right now she was just a little disgusted by the way he was looking her over like a piece of meat. Besides, she had just been thinking about a possible relationship with Sheldon for Heaven’s sake. This was hardly the time for Randy McJock to show up.

“I’m fine,” she told him as she scrambled to her feet, mindful of flashing any more of herself to this Mike than was necessary. “Don’t need any help, thanks.”

“You sure?” he checked, adjusting his hat on his head. “’Cause I can’t understand why a woman like you is even at this house...”

“Because she’s a friend of mine,” said Sheldon as he appeared through the screen door, making Penny physically jump. “Hello Michael Carlton,” he said then, peering down at the very butch guy by the steps.

“Well, if it ain’t Shelly Cooper come visiting again,” he grinned again, showing he was missing a couple of teeth - Penny grimaced at that.

“It is Sheldon Cooper, as you well know,” her friend replied succinctly. “I don’t have to take your abuse anymore. The days of Johnson Elementary are long since past.”

Penny frowned at that, glancing from Mike to Sheldon and back. She knew the things that were said to Sheldon in school, the crap he suffered just because he was smarter than everyone else. ‘Shelly Cooper is a smelly pooper’ was a favourite, she had been told, and this Mike guy looked like just the type to have started it. Apparently he also wanted to start something now as he swung himself around the stair rail and up onto the porch. Penny could feel Sheldon shaking right beside her, but he stood his ground anyway.

“I know that I can’t think for a second why you think you can talk to me like that,” said Mike, grinning almost evilly at Sheldon. “I also know that this fine lookin’ woman here would rather come along and spend her day with me, than with a geeky streak o’ nothin’ like you.”

“Hey!” Penny interrupted crossly. “This woman has a name, bubba, and she happens to like Sheldon’s company a whole lot better than yours.”

The big lug of a guy turned his attention to the blonde next, grabbing the arm that had just struck him and pulling her up close. Her body hit his chest muscles with a thud.

“I don’t think maybe I like you as much as I thought,” he told her nastily, practically spitting in her face.

Before Penny had a chance to react, there was a loud crash as Sheldon successfully cracked one of his mother’s flowerpots across Mike’s head. The guy dropped Penny’s arm and staggered some, but he was still upright, and very, very mad. Penny recalled her self-defence training all too well, kneeing Mike in the most painful place, and shoving him hard. He tumbled down the porch steps and landed in a heap in the dirt.

“Sheldon, get inside,” said Penny fast, pushing him in.

They closed and bolted the doors quickly and then turned to face each other.

Penny wanted to laugh. It was the most insane moment. When Sheldon hit the guy with a flower pot it was like something out of a cartoon or a comedy sketch, and yet it worked. Besides, she couldn’t help but be in awe of why he had done such a thing. When Mike insulted him, he fought back with words but was obviously terrified. The moment the big lug laid a hand on her, that was when Penny realised Sheldon went for the attack. He could’ve been killed by the guy that had a neck the size of both his nerdy thighs put together. That was real bravery, right there, and just for her.

“That was... Thank you, Sheldon,” she said then, going up on her toes and kissing his cheek without a thought.

Honestly, he looked more shocked by what he had done than Penny was, and then all the more bemused by her own way of showing gratitude. They didn’t kiss. They rarely hugged, though of all people, he did seem to have hugged her the most. A quick calculation proved that the only people with a higher number of hugs was Missy, his Meemaw, and possibly his mother, and they had been in his life a whole twenty-four years longer than Penny, so it was to be expected. It was after a full two minutes of staring at her as if she were the crazy one that Penny felt the need to ask him what was up.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “but being here certainly seems to be the catalyst for whatever it is,” he shivered involuntary. “I think we should go back to Pasadena,” he added then, turning to go to his room and pack presumably.

Penny realised something in that moment that she never could have suspected before, that just maybe she wasn’t alone in thinking there was more between her and Sheldon than just a friendship.

“Hey, Sheldon?” she called, making him stop and turned back. “I need to... to perform an experiment,” she said in words she knew would make most sense to him. “Just try not to freak out, okay?”

“Penny, why would I...?”

The answer to his unasked question was the same thing that interrupted it; a pair of female lips covering his. Maybe it was the craziest thing Penny ever did, but she chose not to think about it. She had to see what happened, what she might feel, how Sheldon might react. He wasn’t really responding, but at the same time he was pushing her off and running for the hills.

Pulling away after a few seconds, Penny stared at Sheldon, and he stared back. He looked confused, probably because he was. After all that had gone before, he still wasn’t expecting that to happen, and yet at the same time, he didn’t really mind so much. That baffled the unflappable scientist more than anything else.

“I need to pack,” he said out of the blue, turning to walk away again.

Penny honestly thought she just ruined everything, and yet at the same time, Sheldon’s reaction hadn’t been so bad...

“Penny?” he called to her then, making her look up fast. “If you wanted to experiment some more later, I wouldn’t object,” he told her, without expression or tone, and then he was gone from her sight.

There was a smile playing at the blonde’s lips as she followed on to her own temporary room to pack and leave. They hadn’t even been here together twenty four hours and yet they’d moved on in their relationship ten times faster than five years in Pasadena! Texas clearly had an odd effect on one or both of them. Not that Penny really thought that this wouldn’t have happened eventually anyway. To think that when she first met Sheldon he freaked out if she so much as brushed past him too close in the hall. Now she was kissing him and he was offering her the chance to repeat that activity. That was some serious progress!

Now it was time to head home and face reality. Amy, Leonard, everybody and everything. At least they were facing it together, Penny thought, as she picked up her abandoned cowboy hat and popped it back on her head. As she headed through the bedroom door, she found herself humming a tune she was sure Sheldon would approve of - Deep In The Heart Of Texas.

The End


End file.
